A New Way To Say Goodbye
by Smiling Dreams
Summary: John knows that he has to find someone that will take in him and Solas, but is Sherlock Holmes and his dæmon Kiera really what they are looking for. (Episode 1 up to John and Sherlock meeting) Post-Reichenbach after that. Rated T 'cause Sherlock. :3
1. A Fresh Start

_Watson_

John glanced down at his dæmon. Solas looked back up at him. "You ready?" She asked. John nodded.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He whispered. The lioness gave a small smile as she and John rushed out into the line of fire. They ducked and dived as somewhere ahead of them a bomb went off. The dived for shelter as the shrapnel went flying around them.

They were up in a flash, racing towards the injured soldiers. Solas grabbed a dog dæmon that John didn't have time to identify the breed of before he picked up the soldier he belonged to.

As the soldier put her weight against John, he quickly turned and they began to make their way back. Suddenly her dæmon shouted a warning, but it was too late. A bullet connected with John's shoulder causing him to fall. Solas groaned in pain, but remained standing. The female soldier helped pull the two of them up, and they continued back to the relative safety of the camp.

The second they reached safe ground, he ordered the soldier up on to the examination table, shortly followed by her dæmon.

John pulled out his equipment and started working on the two bullets lodged in her leg before moving to the one in the small of her back. She passed out pretty soon from the pain, but Solas watched over them.

As soon as her surgery was successfully finished, John accepted the growing pain in his left shoulder. He looked over and saw a bit to much blood flowing from it. Solas noticed too and was deeply concerned, but he shrugged it off. They went out again and again, rescuing three more soldiers before John finally collapsed.

"JOHN!" Solas called out as she crawled to his side. "SOMEONE HELP!" She called as others rushed over to help their only medical soldier on the front with them.

John saw Solas fall too as they both began to black out. The last thing he felt was someone picking her up as their dæmons were much to small.

"Sol..." He called. "Sol no..." He tried to stop them from touching her, but he blacked out.

* * *

John almost screamed as he sat up in his bed. He looked around familiarised himself with his surroundings. A poorly decorated room with no sentimental value. He sighed waking Solas. "John?" She whispered in the dark. "Are you alright?" She was concerned. He gave a small smile, and nodded before getting up. He looked at the time on his watch. 5:47 am it read. John shrugged before moving over to the bathroom followed by a yawning lioness.

He showered and dressed before limping over to his cane. He sat on his bed, deep in thought as Solas curled up at his feet. He looked down at her before walking over to his desk and pulling his laptop out, revealing his not very well hidden gun.

He opened it up to the familiar blank page. Your logged in as J H. Watson. He sighed. Nothing, absolutely nothing was interesting in his life.

* * *

As John considered how to reply to his physiatrist, he thought that maybe saying it was doing well would be appropriate. "Good, very good." He said trying to sound convincing. Solas shifted nervously, as Ditrick often made her. Ditrick was his physiatrist's dæmon, which happened to be a budgie. He fluttered around Solas' head trying to be reassuring, but failing.

"You haven't written a word, have you?" She asked. He shook his head softly. She sighed.

"And you just wrote still has trust issues." John pointed out noticing her clipboard.

"And you read my writing upside down. You see what I mean?" John knew what she meant, and he knew what was coming next, Solas' tail stopped on his leg. "John, you're a soldier, and it's going to take you a while to adjust to civilian life. And writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you."

John sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing happens to me." Solas stood and nodded to the physiatrist, before walking out the room, shortly followed by a hobbling John.

John picked up a newspaper. October 13th it read in the corner. As he opened it up to the front page article he was surprised to find a suicide case on the page before. Interested, John abandoned the main story and began reading.

_Yesterday evening after a normal day of work, business man Sir Jeff Patterson was found dead after committing suicide. As quoted from his wife, "He would never do something like this." Leading the case to be taken as maybe something more than just a suicide._

Deeply puzzled by the short article, John put it aside to rethink later.

November 27th, and John had turned on the news. A young boy had been going out with a friend, and then headed back for a forgotten umbrella. The next morning he was found dead under the same circumstances of the last suicide John had read about. Strange. Very strange. '_But_,' John thought, '_nothing the police can't handle'._

But then the same time in January, a woman who had been leaving a night club had been found dead, after having disappeared from the crowded place. '_This is becoming very strange.'_ John thought, looking over at Solas, who's tail flicked nervously.

"Right then. Off to the park." John said, looking down at Solas. She gave a small smile, before getting up and heading for the door.

As John walked with a quick pace to keep up with Solas he heard someone call his name. "John?" He asked. "John Watson!" He said getting up from his park bench to follow him. His dæmon, (not surprisingly a pig) got up and followed him too.

John and Solas turned. "Stummford, Mike Stummford." He said pointing to himself. "We were at Bart's together!" He declared.

John almost rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes sorry." He said shaking hands with the man. "Hi, hello, hi..." He said looking around trying to leave it at that, but Mike seemed desperate for conversation.

"I got fat, didn't I?" He said.

"No, no..." John was really uncomfortable now.

"I, umm, heard you were abroad somewhere getting shot at! What happened?" He asked forgetting his previous question and overlooking John's discomfort.

"I got shot." He stated simply. Solas flicked her tail.

He didn't know how he had been convinced, but with coffee in hand, John found himself sitting at a bench with Mike. "So, you still at Bart's then?" John asked not really curious.

Mike nodded. "Teaching now, bright young things like used to be. God I hate them." He said laughing at his own joking making John join in. "What about you, staying in town until you get yourself sorted?" He asked, his dæmon grunting a bit as Solas paced in front of him.

'_I wish.'_ John thought. "Can't afford London on an army pension." Mike nodded in understanding.

"Aahh, and you couldn't bear to be anywhere else. That's not the John Watson I know!" John turned his head to him quickly as Solas stopped pacing.

"Well I'm not the John Watson you know." He said in an almost angry whisper.

It grew uncomfortable, and John moved his cup into his other hand to stop it from shaking.

"Couldn't Harry help?" Solas hissed in a very out of the ordinary display of anger.

John laughed. "Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

"Pfft, well I don't know then, get a flat share or something?" He asked trying to help.

"Come on," John replied, "Who'd want me for a flat mate?"

Mike gave a quiet laugh, and as far as he knew, John didn't find anything funny at all. "What?" He asked.

"You're the second person to say that to me today." He said still with a small smile.

"Who was the first?" John asked, now paying attention to what he had to say. But he didn't say anything. He just got up, and told John to follow him, which he did.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I know this isn't the exact conversation they had, but the Internet was down when I wrote this, so :P

* * *

As John stepped into the room, he felt eyes settle on him. He looked up at the other man who was doing some sort of test. "Not like it was back in my day." He commented.

"No, no." Mike said walking around the table to stand opposite the strange man. Turning his gaze away from John, he turned to Mike.

"Can I borrow your phone Mike? Mine doesn't have any signal." Mike sighed.

"Why can't you use a landline?" He asked in something close to exasperation. Sherlock didn't seem effected.

"I prefer to text." He said as Mike slowly started heading back to where he had left his jacket.

"I left it in my jacket." He said after receiving Sherlock's slightly curious glance.

With a push from Solas, John stepped forward.

"Here, use mine." He said handing his phone over to the slightly surprised Sherlock and receiving a similar look from Mike.

"Thanks." Sherlock said uncertainly, as if he didn't say thank you often. He took it anyway, immediately beginning to text. Solas looked around quickly, before spotting the vixen sitting on the table at the other end. She hadn't noticed Solas yet, but was watching Sherlock.

"So." Sherlock said breaking the silence, "Afghanistan or Iraq?" He said continuing to type. The vixen turned to study John's expression.

"Umm, did you tell him about me?" John said looking over to Mike, who just shook his head.

"Nothing." He said as if this clarified something.

"Umm, Afghanistan." John said as Solas' tail began to flick back and forth nervously.

"So, let me guess. Your dæmon is a..." He trailed off, before looking over at his own dæmon who gave him a smirk. He frowned slightly before handing John his phone back. "Big animal likely. Built for fighting and running. A cheetah maybe, but they aren't really animals that attack when it comes down to it. A large dog? No, you don't seem to be a dog person. I'm not sure. What is she?" He asked turning to John.

But before John could open his mouth, Solas stepped out from behind the table. Sherlock gave a smile when he saw her, as did his vixen. "Solas. My name is Solas." She said introducing herself. The vixen stood before jumping from the table to the ground.

"I'm Kiera. Nice to meet you." She said bowing her head. Solas bowed her head in return.

Sherlock gave a small smile, John realised he didn't do it often as he looked quite crazy as he did so. "Do you like violin? I play it some nights and am not very social, sometimes I might not speak for days on end. You don't mind do you?" He sad randomly dropping his smile and becoming serious again.

"Uh, what?" John asked confused. Sherlock rolled his eyes like it was obvious.

"Potential flat mates should know the worst each other, right?" Sherlock asked beginning to pack up his equipment.

"Who said anything about flat mates?" John asked, irritated to be left behind.

"I did. I found this nice little place that we could afford." He said grabbing his coat.

As Sherlock marched out the door, John knew if he left now he wouldn't know where to meet him. "I don't even know your name, or where we are going to meet or what time!" He said calling after the strange man.

Sherlock pocked his head back in the door. "The name's Sherlock Holmes, the time is 6:30am and the address is 221B Baker Street." He made a clicking noise with his tongue and winked as he left. "Goodbye!" He said closing the door.

John turned to Mike, who seemed relatively calm. "Yes, he's always like that."


End file.
